“Human language, for us moderns, has swung in on itself, turning its back on the beings around us. Language is a human property, suitable only for communication with other persons. We talk to people; we do not speak to the ground underfoot. We've largely forgotten the incantatory and invocational use of speech as a way of bringing ourselves into deeper rapport with the beings around us, or of calling the living land into resonance with us. It is a power we still brush up against whenever we use our words to bless and to curse, or to charm someone we're drawn to. But we wield such eloquence only to sway other people, and so we miss the greater magnetism, the gravitational power that lies within such speech. The beaver gliding across the pond, the fungus gripping a thick trunk, a boulder shattered by its tumble down a cliff or the rain splashing upon those granite fragments -- we talk about such beings, the weather and the weathered stones, but we do not talk to them.Entranced by the denotative power of words to define, to order, to represent the things around us, we've overlooked the songful dimension of language so obvious to our oral [storytelling] ancestors. We've lost our ear for the music of language -- for the rhythmic, melodic layer of speech by which earthly things overhear us.”
Explore This Quote Further
Examples of Usage:
In his book "The Spell of the Sensuous", David Abram discusses how modern human language has become disconnected from the natural world around us. He highlights the importance of using language not just to communicate with other people, but to establish a deeper connection with the beings and elements of the earth. Through incantations, invocations, blessings, and curses, he suggests that we can tap into a greater power that allows us to resonate with the living land. This excerpt prompts us to reconsider the way we interact with nature and the role of language in fostering a more harmonious relationship with the world around us.
Analysis
In this passage, author David Abram laments the human tendency to use language solely for communication with other people, neglecting its power to connect us with the natural world. He criticizes modern society for focusing on the denotative aspect of language, using words to define and represent objects rather than engaging in a more mystical and reverent form of communication with the beings around us. By emphasizing the importance of "incantatory and invocational use of speech," Abram suggests that we have lost touch with the enchanting and captivating nature of language that our storytelling ancestors once possessed. The author urges readers to rediscover the musical and poetic quality of language, as a means of reconnecting with the earth and forming a deeper, more meaningful relationship with all living things.
The Lost Art of Language Connection
In this quote by David Abram, he reflects on the modern disconnection between human language and the natural world. He emphasizes the importance of using language not just for communication with other humans, but also as a way to connect with and honor the beings and elements of the natural world. Abram highlights the power of language to create a deeper resonance with our surroundings, calling for a return to the enchanting and invocational use of speech that our ancestors once embodied.
Reflection Questions:
In the passage above, David Abram highlights the disconnect between modern human language and the natural world around us. He discusses how we have forgotten the power of language to connect with the beings and elements of the earth. Reflect on the following questions to deepen your understanding of this concept:
How do you typically use language in your daily life? Do you primarily communicate with other people, or do you also engage in speaking to the natural world around you?
Have you ever experienced the power of language to bless, curse, or charm someone? How did that make you feel, and how do you think those words affected the recipient?
What do you think Abram means by the "music of language" and the "songful dimension of language"? How can you tap into this rhythmic and melodic layer of speech to connect more deeply with nature?
Reflect on a time when you have felt a sense of rapport or resonance with the beings or elements of the earth. How did you communicate in that moment, and how did it differ from your usual language usage?
How can you strive to incorporate more reverence and intentionality into your use of language, in order to cultivate a deeper connection with the natural world?
Similar quotes
“All things have the capacity for speech -- all beings have the ability to communicate something of themselves to other beings. Indeed, what is perception if not the experience of this gregarious, communicative power of things, wherein even obstensibly 'inert' objects radiate out of themselves, conveying their shapes, hues, and rhythms to other beings and to us, influencing and informing our breathing bodies though we stand far apart from those things?Not just animals and plants, then, but tumbling waterfalls and dry riverbeds, gusts of wind, compost piles and cumulus clouds, freshly painted houses (as well as houses abandoned and sometimes haunted), rusting automobiles, feathers, granite cliffs and grains of sand, tax forms, dormant volcanoes, bays and bayous made wretched by pollutants, snowdrifts, shed antlers, diamonds, and daikon radishes, all are expressive, sometimes eloquent and hence participant in the mystery of language. Our own chatter erupts in response to the abundant articulations of the world: human speech is simply our part of a much broader conversation.It follows that the myriad things are also listening, or attending, to various signs and gestures around them. Indeed, when we are at ease in our animal flesh, we will sometimes feel we are being listened to, or sensed, by the earthly surroundings. And so we take deeper care with our speaking, mindful that our sounds may carry more than a merely human meaning and resonance. This care -- this full-bodied alertness -- is the ancient, ancestral source of all word magic. It is the practice of attention to the uncanny power that lives in our spoken phrases to touch and sometimes transform the tenor of the world's unfolding.”
“How monotonous our speaking becomes when we speak only to ourselves! And how insulting to the other beings – to foraging black bears and twisted old cypresses – that no longer sense us talking to them, but only about them, as though they were not present in our world…Small wonder that rivers and forests no longer compel our focus or our fierce devotion. For we walk about such entities only behind their backs, as though they were not participant in our lives. Yet if we no longer call out to the moon slipping between the clouds, or whisper to the spider setting the silken struts of her web, well, then the numerous powers of this world will no longer address us – and if they still try, we will not likely hear them.”
“I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.”
“We switch to another language-- not our invented language or the language we've learned from our lives. As we walk further up the mountain, we speak the language of silence. This language gives us time to think and move. We can be here and elsewhere at the same time.”
“The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that. ”
“...along with the other animals, the stones, the trees, and the clouds, we ourselves are characters within a huge story that is visibly unfolding all around us, participants within the vast imagination, or Dreaming, of the world.”